Leonard helps out in return from injury

It had been 36 days since Kawhi Leonard suited up for a Spurs game, sitting out since Nov. 1 when pain from tendinitis in his left quadriceps (thigh) sent him to the sidelines.

Leonard went on road trips just to battle boredom. But when he finally got to suit up for Saturday’s 99-94 Friday night victory over the New Orleans Hornets at the AT&T Center, coach Gregg Popovich made him wait a little longer to get into the action.

Leonard sat through the first 19 minutes, 34 seconds before Popovich got him on the court. Little wonder, then, that the very first time he touched the ball, exactly 40 seconds after entering the game, he immediately launched his first shot since Nov. 15, a perfect 3-pointer from the right corner.

“I was ready for the pass,” said Leonard, fed for the wide-open shot by Boris Diaw. “That’s what our offense is: Get the ball in the corner, shoot threes and work off close-outs.”

The second-year forward from San Diego State started the first nine games but Popovich planned his transition back into game action.

“He told me he was going to ease me in the game,” Leonard said. “I wasn’t anxious. I just stayed ready until he called my name.”

Leonard finished with eight points on 3-for-7 shooting and added two rebounds, a blocked shot and two steals in 20 minutes, precisely the upper limit Popovich had set for the forward’s first game in more than a month.

“I thought he was very, very good after sitting out as long as he did,” Popovich said. “He really only had 1????1/2 practices to get into the flow.”

Leonard played 9:17 in the fourth quarter of a tight game and made a couple of significant defensive plays. He chased down the ball after teammate Stephen Jackson tapped it away from New Orleans’ Xavier Henry, then fed Manu Ginobili for a layin and three-point play that gave the Spurs an 84-70 lead.

After the Hornets cut the Spurs’ lead to eight points with fewer than three minutes left, Leonard helped Tim Duncan double-team Hornets forward Ryan Anderson, forcing a turnover.

Interested party: Spurs forward Matt Bonner, a vice-president of the National Basketball Players Association who endured long days and nights of negotiating during the league’s lockout of the players last year, has closely followed the NHL lockout. So he was excited by news that the NHL Players Association had voted to let its executive board decide whether to decertify the union.

It is the same tactic the NBPA used last year to spur the league to take action to negotiate a deal rather than face a long court battle.

“It is on the owners now,” Bonner said. “They’ll have to decide if they want to make a long legal battle.”